[EL] What could be done

[John Shockley]

Dear All:

I think it is reasonable to assume that the Russian hacking changed the
results because the election was extremely close, and Donald Trump used the
emails often in his attacks on Hillary Clinton during the campaign.  He
would have ignored the emails had he not found them helpful!  Instead, day
after day as they dribbled out, he used them as more examples of "crooked
Hillary."  Given how extremely close the election was, any of a number of
things plausibly made the difference, including of course the Comey
actions.  When you realize that Hillary lost Michigan by just over 10,000
votes out of 4.8 million votes cast, and that a change of only 5,000+ votes
would have given her Michigan, it is quite plausible.  The same with
Wisconsin--a change of hardly 11,000 votes (she lost the state by less than
23,000) out of nearly 3 million votes cast, and Pennsylvania (a change of
23,000 votes out of over 6 million cast).  Again, your best proof is Donald
Trump's actions and the extremely narrow margin by which he won those three
states (and Florida).

He was very, very lucky, and of course he is grateful to Putin for the help.

Yours,
John Shockley, Ph.D.
Department of Political Science, retired
Augsburg College

On Sun, Jan 8, 2017 at 9:52 AM, Terry Martin <tjm5da at virginia.edu> wrote:

> I must wonder why "it is reasonable to believe [Russian hacking] changed
> the results of the election." Is there data to support this or is it mere
> speculation? I suppose if one were to believe that there were enough voters
> in those swing states for whom embarrassing details regarding emails made
> the difference that would make sense, which would be necessary to reach
> this conclusion given that the report concludes that there was no evidence
> of tampering with the vote tally. However, with such vast differences in
> policy and public perceptions of the candidates (recall that Hillary was
> widely viewed as corrupt and untrustworthy even absent the emails), I am
> hesitant to believe that details released in emails would cause enough
> voters to free the Clinton camp for Trump's, to vote for Johnson/Stein, or
> simply stay home in a way that would change the outcome in states totaling
> 38 electoral votes (would need a combination of the following: Michigan -
> 16, Pennsylvania - 20, Wisconsin - 10, Florida - 29, meaning either
> FL+MI/WI/PA or PA+MI+WI).
>
> On Sat, Jan 7, 2017 at 9:50 PM, Larry Levine <larrylevine at earthlink.net>
> wrote:
>
>> In an election as close as this one was in several key states, I think it
>> can be concluded that the actions of the Russian government influenced
>> public opinion in the U.S. to a degree that it is reasonable to believe it
>> changed the result of the election. But under our system, even if it were
>> proved, what could be done.
>>
>> http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-11-most-important
>> -lines-from-the-new-intelligence-report-on-russia%e2%80%99s-
>> hacking/ar-BBxYXGw?li=BBnb7Kz
>>
>> Larry
>>
>>
>>
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>
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